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A review by hapalyn
A Court This Cruel and Lovely by Stacia Stark
adventurous
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Were there some cliche plot points? Yes. BUT-
The way I loved the adventure and build up to a bigger plotline, and I really enjoyed the found family aspect with the "mercenaries". The FMC is intelligent and I love the heart of gold she has! I also really enjoy the magic she possesses, it's really unique compared to other fantasy FMCs I've read lately!
A couple of reveals lined up to be a little too coincidental for me, but I think the enjoyment I experienced throughout the read made up for the lack of believability in some areas (and, well it's fantasy so it's not necessarily believable anyways). The twist with the MMC had me intrigued because while I somewhat expected it, I think part of me didn't want to at the same time. I'm very interested to see the resolution between FMC AND MMC, but I'm not looking forward to reading 500 pages to get there... lol.
I will be continuing with this series and enjoying the different characters!
The way I loved the adventure and build up to a bigger plotline, and I really enjoyed the found family aspect with the "mercenaries". The FMC is intelligent and I love the heart of gold she has! I also really enjoy the magic she possesses, it's really unique compared to other fantasy FMCs I've read lately!
A couple of reveals lined up to be a little too coincidental for me, but I think the enjoyment I experienced throughout the read made up for the lack of believability in some areas (and, well it's fantasy so it's not necessarily believable anyways). The twist with the MMC had me intrigued because while I somewhat expected it, I think part of me didn't want to at the same time. I'm very interested to see the resolution between FMC AND MMC, but I'm not looking forward to reading 500 pages to get there... lol.
I will be continuing with this series and enjoying the different characters!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Alcohol
Minor: Rape, Death of parent, and Vomit
For fire injury: there are people executed by being burned alive
For rape/sexual assault: there's implications of side characters being rapists, and there is an attempted sexual assault/rape + attempted murder of FMC towards the first half of the book she is not assaulted and kills the guy
For murder: couple of different deaths by beheading, stabbing, pushed into a river, etc.